


Shadows of Fire - I

by DarkElite020



Series: Shadows of Fire [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/M, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, My First Fanfic, ODST - Freeform, Project Freelancer, rvb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-02 00:23:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6542830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkElite020/pseuds/DarkElite020
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The agents of Project Freelancer have become ODSTs.</p><p>The human-covenant war is nearly over. After a long struggle, we are winning. For now. </p><p>You're the rookie, Agent Washington. It's time to finish the fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Drop Before Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic ever, so hope you enjoy it!

This is only your second week here, and already, you’ve determined that you know how you’re going to die today. Today is the day you’re going to be dropped feet first into hell in a huge metal death trap. The other ODST’s call it the Egg. Most refer to the pod as an egg because it’s a metallic shell protecting a human life inside. The egg is then supposed to open up and that human life is meant to come out of it and rain fire upon their enemies and complete the matter at hand. To keep on surviving.  


That was all just a theory, however. To you, ‘Wash’, as the other freelancers-- No...As the other Orbital Drop Shock Troopers now called you-- the egg was entirely different.  


When somebody is in the kitchen making themselves a nice breakfast, and they drop an egg on the floor, that egg is destined to splatter. To be entirely unusable once on the ground and just another mess to clean up. Now imagine, this kitchen egg falling from fucking space. This is now the reason you need to get out of bed this morning. So you can hop into an egg and fucking splatter all over the planet’s surface. You’re definitely not looking forward to it.  


XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX  


Getting out of bed has its own struggles. You’re exhausted and have only been sleeping in shifts of two hours, three times a day, if you’re lucky. Usually it was only two shifts, and when shit was going down it could be a few days between these two hour naps. To you, taking the job may have not been worth it at this point. The Mother of Invention has a pretty good view of space to be fair. That and maybe saving a few million lives is also a benefit. You’re actually pretty proud of yourself.  


When it’s time to wake up, the lights flash on. At 3:45 am it’s like a pure white sun in your eyes, leaving blue patches in your vision whenever you blink, and then it’s followed by your tired groan. After that, there’s some shifting, and a kick of your leg to pull the thick blanket down slightly. You grab a handful and fling away the rest of the blanket. You then notice your roommate. He is very hard to miss. He’s already standing up out of bed and walking out the door.  


The other man is some big dude. The biggest guy you’ve ever seen. Agent Maine. Maine never really had much to say, but every word he ever had said so far was just something simple. He’d never ramble on about anything. It’s kind of hard to find out how everyone seems to know so much about him when he never takes the time to sit down and have a conversation with someone. You don’t know how you feel about being the guy’s roommate. As mentioned before, he is really fucking big. He could squash you like a bug at any given moment. You need to make a mental note to yourself to be careful around him.  


You need to get up and out of bed then.  


Things weren’t harsh around here necessarily, until you were out in a fight; training or on the battlefield. You had a little bit of time to get ready for work, like a normal human being. You are a normal human being of course, just with a job nobody else wanted. Your mouth opens into an audible yawn, and you stretch your arms up high above your blond hair.  


You’re wearing a gray T-shirt that is a little loose for you, how you like it, and fuzzy sweatpants with a bunch of kitten paw-prints on them. Then you struggle to keep balance as you stumble out of the room and down the hall. The lights were so bright and it’s hard to see when you’re already sleep deprived. You yawn again, reminding you just how much sleep you actually aren’t getting.  


You find your way to the showers and strip out of your night attire. You pull the handle and feel the rushing water against your scarred skin. It was lukewarm, not satisfying or comfortable but refreshing. You scrub your short blond hair with a strong scented strawberry shampoo. It drips down the sides of your head. You then rinse out your hair and clean yourself off with a bar of soap. As you showered you think about your previous job. Before you became a suicide jumper, you remember being captain of a squad fighting Covenant down on the ground. That seemed so much easier, just barking orders to others, killing the Covvie bastards, and scrubbing the blue bloody chunks of flesh out from under your nails.  


You get out of the shower and wrap a towel around yourself.  


You walk back to your room barefoot, your eyes now adjusted to the light, and you get dressed. Now you wear a tank-top and a pair of shorts before you slide a uniform on over it. You scrub your hair with your towel that was already partially damp in an attempt to dry your hair and to keep it from sticking to your face. Then you toss the towel onto your bed, scoop up your helmet under your arm, and look at the time. It was just about time to go. You’re still super tired, but the shower helped you wake up just a little bit, just enough to help keep your eyes open. You make a loud “I hate this” because nobody else is around.  


Almost time to go into the drop pods. You put on your helmet. It fits snugly against your head and it feels like you are being smothered but you somehow are breathing through it anyway. It’s not a choking and suffocating feeling, just like someone is trying to kill you but they can’t quite do it.  


Your armor is a dark gray with a yellow stripe going across the top middle of the helmet. The shoulder pads were also entirely yellow. You walk into the bay where the pods were dangling above an opening floor. Some of the ODSTs were there already. You are screaming on the inside.  


Maine was there in his ODST armor, which was a solid white with a golden visor, with a brown stripe on his head, on parts of his thighs, and his shoulders. He looked intimidating already, and the armor added to the fear factor. He also noticed the twins, South already sitting in her pod with the hatch still open, waiting. North was talking to her but you are too far away to tell what they were talking about. You could just notice North’s lips moving. He was the only one in the room who had his visor set to be clear at the moment. All of the ODSTs visors could become transparent, however most chose not to, and at this point you are totally taking advantage of having your visor be a solid color. It was hiding your fear from the others. You guess your body language made you look nervous anyway because now North is walking over to you. He had a small little hologram sitting on his shoulder.  


That was when the darker purple twin looked to you. His eyes trailing around the visor to find out where exactly yours are behind your own.  
You blink and look up to him.  


“Hey. You ok, Wash?” North Dakota asked, tilting his head ever so slightly.  


You bite your lip. With some obvious hesitance, you finally nod.  


“I just don’t see how you all are just so willing to get dropped hundreds of thousands of feet for a living.”  


North made a small reassuring smile to the rookie. You.  


“The first drop is always the scariest. Don’t worry though, Rookie, we’ve got your back. It’s not as bad as it seems.”  


The small blue and pinkish hologram joined in on the conversation.  


“The first time was really scary!” The A.I., Theta, paused to rub the back of his neck.  


“It is actually pretty fun though once you do it a few times. It’s like being on a really tall roller coaster.” The A.I. smiled.  


You, in reality hate, roller coasters. You choose to stay silent though, not wanting to ruin the A.I.’s spirit.  


You clear your throat a little and mumble an “Oh good” in a response. North just makes a small chuckle and playfully slaps your shoulder.  


“Lighten up a bit will ya?” He said, then walking off, a stupid grin on his face.  


A computer program’s voice then rings throughout the ship. You are so scared for your future now that you kind of tune out a good majority of what she says. All you end up hearing is “Good luck agents” and you see everyone climbing into their drop pods.  


_Breathe._ You remind yourself to breathe.  


You take a few heavy steps to your own pod. The hatch is open. You climb in and strap into the seat. The strap is the only thing keeping you from floating up out of your seat and slamming your head into the roof of the pod. You grasp the controls for dear life. This is your first time actually using them or even seeing them. You’ve only practiced with simulations. You peer your head out of the front of the pod a bit to examine what the others are doing. To them, it’s just another day at work, nothing exciting or special. You hear a ‘ch thunk’ and your hatch starts closing in on you and you move your head to be leaning back in your seat. It hisses closed and locks itself. You now are swearing loudly in a panic.  


Then you calm yourself down, close your eyes, and focus on breathing. Your chest is rising and falling. You ignore your rapid heartbeat and the urge to scream about quitting.  


This was the uphill on the roller coaster. The moment right before you go over the top of the bump and start speeding down.  


You want to watch the other ODSTs. You want to see your only friends before you die. With a touch of bad luck, though, the window is only a thin strip directly in front of you, and you can’t see out the sides of the pod whatsoever. You only see the man that put you here. A man with black hair, glasses, green eyes and a short beard. He’s the one who’s given you the name of Agent Washington.  


You look down, as far as the window lets you, anyways. Your pod jerks and shakes, and you see the clouds underneath you. You are on the downhill side now.  


Along with falling comes screaming. Your stomach is in your throat and you feel the need to throw up, but you don’t. Your insides feel distorted and all jammed up into your mouth. The others are falling too. There are screens along the sides of the pod’s insides and they are showing the other agents. You can see their pods falling in line with yours through the window. On the screens you can see their faces. All of their expressions. You can hear their voices. They are trying to get you to shut up, at least the boldest few are.  


You want to swallow your insides back down and listen to them, but you just can’t. A few moments later, their mouths are moving, and you hear silence. They’ve muted you. At least, all the ones who you can tell are talking.  


That’s when you remember, you have to fucking pilot this thing. You notice you’ve drifted off quite a distance from the others.You try to steer it back into place, and you somehow get farther away from them.  


“Fuck.” is the only word you can focus on right now. The city is flooded with Covenant and with every few feet between you and the others is more aliens you have to get by.  


You stop screaming for a little bit and the others don’t even seem to notice. They continue to talk about things with each other. Important things probably, that you really wish you could hear.  


The only things you know are from what Maine told you yesterday through all your questions.  


“How bad is the first drop?”  


“Bad.”  


“Oh… Well… We have a mission tomorrow. It’ll be my first drop.”  


A shrug from him in response.  


“Find Iowa.” His gruff voice uttered, as if Wash had tested him on what the point of the mission was.  


Iowa, was also a rookie. She probably was an ODST maybe for a little over a month. Anyways the point is, she didn’t come back from the last mission. She didn’t make it to the LZ with everyone else on time and was left behind.  


“Is she a hostage?” You ask, wanting to know more.  


“Probably.”  


“Do we know where she’s being kept?”  


Another shrug. “East?”  


“Is that an ‘I know for a fact East?’ Or is that a ‘maybe East?’”  


Only a glare in response. You shut up and take the precious time to sleep. You’d probably hear more about it in the morning.  


You don’t.  


XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX  


You are almost to the ground, and the panic starts to kick back up. As you are falling, your egg tilts the worst possible way. You smash into the ground, rattling your bones. The screens all become static, and sparks jump out at you. Your eyes are squeezed tightly shut. You let a moment pass to let the shock of everything that just happened go away.  


When you open your eyes again, you see a crack in the glass of your pod. Your harness barely supports you at all now. You look through the glass, and find the ground. You can only see a small bit of what is in front of you. The rest is the shattered ground.  


Breathe. The smothering feeling is stronger now. You pry off your helmet, and allow it to drop to the floor of the pod. You unbuckle your harness. It causes you to fall chest first into already broken glass under you. You groan and are unsure what to do. It’s very thin in the pod and it’s hard to move around. You instinctively reach for the handle that pries open your hatch.  


You slide your fingers around the handle above the glass, hit a few buttons, and pull the handle down. There is a loud ‘fwump’ and the pod jolts. The door tries to kick itself open, but the weight of the pod keeps it in place. Smoke and sparks fill your pod as the supposedly advanced technology inside fails to do its job.  


You cough a few times, and fight the suffocating feeling. You can feel your guts shifting back to where you feel they should be.  


You have to get out of here. You hold the handle with both hands, somehow it can hold your weight enough. You pull yourself and with both feet kick at the top of the hatch, the only place there is a chance you might be able to squeeze out. The glass just cracks a little bit more, and the hatch doesn’t budge. You kind of figured as such. The glass had to be thick, if it was going to protect you at all while you are falling.  


“What a great first trip.” You say to nobody but you. You kick at the hatch and struggle with everything you’ve got. It doesn’t help at all.  


You look to see if you can recognize anything outside. Anything at all. Maybe one of your friends pods falling in the background. One of them coming to save your sorry ass. This is what you hope for, but it is too good to be true. Instead what you see, makes your day a hell of alot worse.  


You stare at what you can see, and examine the shapes in front of you. There are several dark purple crates in front of you, made of some kind of metal. There is also cylinder shaped objects, and you don’t really know what they are. They are almost your height, and they glow with some cyan...gas? Or maybe some kind of plasma? You can’t tell. Either way, you know this means one thing.

The Covenant are nearby. You recognize the crates to be some kind of supply crates. Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be any covenant right where you are. You assume that they had gone out on a patrol, and would be back soon. You really need to get out before they come back. You kick and thrash at the glass, but it is already as broken as it’s gonna get. You sigh and put your helmet back on.

You change your mind. You are going to die not from the fall, but from being trapped in this thing. 

You then hear footsteps. You eagerly look up and out the window. Again, you can’t look out the sides of the pod, so you can’t see what is making them. Worry comes next. You wait, praying that it’s one of the others. 

It’s not though, and you can tell by the gargling language of the aliens. They assume you are dead already. They themselves have watched ODSTs fall from the sky, and sometimes they never come out from the pods. They noticed the window cracked and your hatch closed. They take the time to set the gear they had with them down. That’s when you can see them in front of you. A grunt, two jackals and an Elite. 

The Elite has a sword. You’ve never seen one in person before, but you’ve heard about it. An Energy Sword. They are very light which allows for fast attacks. A well done strike can kill easily or cut through bones. 

The Elite is now walking straight for the pod. You hold still, and think. 

Decide if you want to play dead, or take the risk of fighting back.


	2. Wrath of Wraiths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're traveling in the city now. You desperately need to find the others, before the covenant find you first. 
> 
> Flooded by what becomes an awful memory, guilt consumes you.

You decide that if you play dead, you’ll have to move at some point, and most likely get caught. 

You grab your Designated Marksman Rifle, your DMR for short, and move into place. You aim at the elite through the glass. Breathe. Steady your shot. There is a huge chance this won’t work at all, because the glass is so thick, it might just get stuck in the glass, or worse, it might even deflect off the glass. The bullet might bounce off and pierce you. You are no longer confident about this option either. You are shaking a little. You try to hold as still as possible then, and lay a finger over the trigger.  


The Elite who was walking to you, now roars in alarm as it sees you move. It’s jaws stretch and reveal rows of sharp teeth. It then charges you head on. Panic a little and take the shot. The Elite falls dead.  


You seem a bit relieved, as your eyes watch the corpse. Then you notice something. You had only fired one shot, and you then notice your bullet now trapped in the thick glass. Blink, and look around. Nothing. You actually don’t even see the other aliens anymore either.  


What you hear paints a picture for you. You hear bullets ricocheting off what you assume is the jackal’s shields. Shortly after, the sound of a grenade and alien screaming. You then hear the distinct sound of another alien's plasma pistol, before you then see the grunt running away through the crates. Another bullet is fired and the next thing you know, the unknown blue cylinders are exploding into bright neon greens, yellows and blues. Then there is silence.  


A moment later you hear the sound of someone or something bumping into your pod. You then see another ODST in front of your pod, pushing and shoving the pod in an attempt to tilt it to be more upright. You blink again slowly and watch. You want to thank them, but instead just stay quiet. You have no idea who they are.  


They have thistle colored armor. At first, you almost think it’s Agent South Dakota, but that thought quickly fades. They have cream accents on their armor. You remember South has green ones, and the purple of her armor is a little more brighter than the color in front of you.  


She, as you assume it’s a she, moves your pod into a normal position,and it makes you fall back onto your seat. She then stands there and watches you.  


“Thanks.” You say in a clear tone, as you can now push the hatch off of the pod. The hatch falls off with a thump. You seem relieved. The air on this planet is a little different and you notice right away the moment you climb out of the pod. It’s wet and humid, like standing in a warm fog. It also has a faint smell of smoke,which is probably from all the damage the covenant has done to this city.  


You stop focusing on that, and now focus on the other ODST. Your eyes widen as she aims her pistols at you. She seems ready to execute you. She takes a step forward, and you take a step back. You bump into your pod.  


“Who are you?”  


The voice confirms your guess. She is a girl.  


“My name is Agent Washington.”  


She lowers her weapons.  


“That’s you? I’ve heard so much.”  


How? They don’t know you, and you don’t know them. Through your confusion you just kinda make a “huh?” unintentionally.  


“You’re that guy they were gonna send in if something happened to one of us.” 

She paused and huffed.

“That asshole was pretty quick to fucking replace me.” She glared at you after her statement. You assume she had been talking about your boss, The Director. You blink. 

“...Iowa?”

“That’s me.”

“He sent us here to come find you.”

“Aw, I’m almost touched. If he assumed I was dead though, he probably truly wanted you to bring this back to him.” She said, holding out some kind of mechanical chip.

You reach out to take it from her, but she swipes it away.

“Not so fast rookie. As long as I’m breathing I’m gonna be the one who’s keeping this.”  


You make a small nod, and at that point she begins to walk off. Follow her, a little closely. Those covenant probably saw your pod dropping, and they might be on their way to you. Iowa doesn’t make much of it, and just keeps going. She seems carefree.  


“Let’s go find the rest of our team. They’re only a couple of miles from here.” She explains, as if you weren’t going to do that anyways. What bugs you is that she said miles, not blocks. It should have only been a few blocks, but of course things just had to go wrong for you. Why wouldn’t they?  


The two of you walk quite some time. It is pretty peaceful somehow. The thistle ODST sometimes bickers about all the stuff everyone has to do daily, and how she still can’t believe the Director would replace her in a heartbeat. Occasionally there is a few covenant here and there. Together, you seem pretty unstoppable. Iowa is still pretty new to everything, but she’s been surviving down here on her own already, and she definitely is a lot more experienced than you. She is constantly saving you, or yelling you instructions.  


XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX  


A few hours have passed. Your stomach is loudly screaming at you, reminding you about how you forgot to eat breakfast today. Some of the thick blue blood from earlier leaves a sticky mess across your armor. You sometimes try to scrub at it while you walk. You aren’t so far from where your friends are supposed to have landed. You actually had come across one of their empty pods a little while ago. You finally are starting to have a little bit of hope.  


Nah. Spoke too soon. You are in the middle of the city now, and take a seat on a chunk of crumbled building. By the time Iowa comes over to sit next to you, you both have to get right back up again. You realize you are very close to the Covvie’s outpost. You can see the alien building off in the distance, and it doesn’t take long for them to find you and come at you. You get up and fire a few shots of your DMR into the nearest enemies. Iowa takes care of the group of elites that try to flank you, firing several shots from her dual pistols into their split faces. They scream and groan.  


It’s a sound you will never forget. One of them even begs for mercy at the last possible second, and without even taking a second to think about the creature’s words Iowa unloads the last of her clips into its face.  


You almost feel bad for them, but again you remind yourself that they were the ones who started all this shit anyways.  


Another Elite manages to get up close to you. The gator has some kind of fancy armor on, and it’s a bit thicker than the others. It growls and tackles you down to the ground. It knocks the breath out of you, and the beast is crushing you under it’s weight. You struggle around beneath it, and you swear you even hear it give a small chuckle. You punch it in the face, and it quickly grabs your wrist with a death grip, and twists it unnaturally.  


Wince and bring your foot up under its stomach and try to push it away from you. It sort of works, he backs off of you a little, and that’s just what you need. Your gun is still in your other hand, and you press the gun against the gator. It growls and quickly lets go of your wrist, smacking the gun from your hand. It then goes for your throat. It grabs on tight, and squeezes. You can feel the uncomfortable feeling of its scales against your skin.  


You are suffocating. Struggle to breathe. Do everything you can to get the fucker off of you. You can’t.  


Iowa, again saves you. She sees the situation you are in. She finishes her fight with a grunt quickly, destroying its lifeline, the methane tank it needs to breathe, before running to you, scooping up your DMR, and in one swift move shoots the elite with three shots to the head.  


The Elite screams in surprise, then falls dead on you. You gasp for air, and lay there for a second. You try and push the Elite off you, but Iowa has to help in order for you to actually become free from it. She kicks the corpse.  


“Thanks...again.” You say, your voice still signalling to her you are trying to catch your breath.  


“Handle it on your own next time.” She says, and with that she tosses you your weapon. You almost don’t catch it. You adjust it to hold it properly, and nod to her, before firing again.

Both of you visibly tense. A wraith comes around the corner of where you just had been, and it’s shooting at you. Iowa sees this, and grabs you by the chestpiece of your armor, and rolls both of you out of the way. The ground is scorched. You two land behind a roadblock, next to a couple abandoned cars. Iowa seems displeased. 

“YOU are the one he sent to replace me? Psh. He could have done better than that.”  


You feel bad she constantly has to save you.

Again you say “Thanks.”  


She’s ignoring you at this point. She jumps right back into the fight, taking down elite after elite. The wraith fires at her this time, realizing she’s more of a threat. The blast arcs up, it’s similar looking to that bright neon blue stuff in that explosion you saw earlier. As she fights an Elite, you watch her punch it flat in the chest, and the elite goes flying, farther than it should have anyway. You realize that mechanical chip from earlier, is probably an AI assisting her. You somewhat wish she would have told you sooner.  


You shout for Iowa to run from the incoming shot of the wraith. 

She turns to run, but suddenly, you watch as a giant magenta colored crystal pierces her face, straight through her visor. Your heart races, and your eyes widen. The skirmisher who shot her, was perched on the top of a nearby car, and you can tell it was that little bastard, when it then fires more rounds into her chest, to guarantee Iowa’s death. It laughs and it quickly chokes on its own blood when you shoot it in the throat, launching the body off the car.

You yell for Iowa, as if she’d hear you. As if she’d say something back. You don’t want to be alone for all this shit. That’s when you see her AI. It’s only there for a moment, and has a soft red glow. The Wraith’s shot finally strikes the ground, right on top of her where she was laying. You shake.  


The AI quickly glitches and falls apart. The chip that once had it’s life entirely destroyed. You look at Iowa. It’s haunting. Her visor cracked and then melted. Her armor scorched black and giving off a burnt rubber smell. You can smell death and smoke.  


“Fuck!” You shout.

You are panicking. What the actual fuck?! You are pissed off. You are terrified. You don’t know what to do. You want to curl up somewhere and be done with everything. You just witnessed your new friend’s death.  


It’s a terrible feeling. She saved you so many times and you didn’t do anything to save her. Guilt eats at you. Clench your fists, and don’t let her life be for nothing. You stand up from your hiding place behind the roadblock. Kill more of the covenant. You no longer feel sorry for them whatsoever.  


Run to the wraith, jam a grenade into an opening into its metallic armor, and run like hell. Run the fuck away from the base. Run away from Iowa. Run away from all the fighting…...into more fighting. You kill a group of grunts in front of you, but when you kill them off, you see your other friends. The other ODSTs. You are relieved they are all ok-- or at least all alive. You help them fight that last group of covenant. Maine gets a shot to the stomach, but nothing too serious. Others get off easy with just a few bruises or scrapes. When the battle is over, several greet you.  


“Good to see you’re alright Wash.”

“Well welcome back asshole. Been looking for you everywhere.”

“Are you ok?”

“Hey welcome back. Glad you found us.” 

You made a small nod. 

“Hi and er..thanks. Sorry about messing up my landing and everything..and making you all look for me.” You say, rubbing the back of your neck. 

“Ah don’t worry about it. Looks like you went through quite a bit of trouble looking for us too.” York says, looking at all the blood that has painted your armor a new color. 

You sigh. “Yeah..” You trail off. 

You need to tell them about the mission… about how their friend died. The group talk among each other. You bite your lip and turn your head when you hear Carolina start talking about which direction would be best to start looking for Iowa in. 

Fuck. You really need to tell them. Take a deep breath.  


“Um..guys… while I was gone I...completed our mission.” You say nervously, but carefully picking your words. 

“Oh really?” South says in disbelief, crossing her arms and looking at you. 

Take another breath and choke out the truth.  


“She was KIA. Her AI was also killed. There-...I couldn’t d-...I wish I-..” You struggle to find out what to say.  


  
_“I’m...so sorry.”_

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX  


The ride back up to the Mother Of Invention is dead silent. The only sounds you hear are the gentle hums of 479er’s pelican as it carries you off into the sky.  


You rarely ever talk to 479er. She’s some short lady, who definitely stands her ground against the group when it’s needed. She may not be much for physical fighting, but if you’re in an argument with her, she is probably going to destroy you and make you look stupid. This is at least, what some of the other ODSTs have told you so far. You want to talk to get to know her herself at some point but now isn’t really the time.  


Again your visor is solid, and you are sitting in a chair in a harness. You silently look at everyone else, but try to not make it obvious. They all seem pretty down after what you told them about Iowa. You still feel awful about the whole thing.  


  
They don’t blame you. You are already blaming yourself. 

A couple hours pass and it seems like forever to get to the MOI. You take advantage of this free time to finally sleep. You shift in your chair a bit, and get comfortable. When the ship is finally in the landing bay, Carolina is the one to wake you up. She shakes your shoulder “Hey, rookie, get up.” And with that she walks off the back of the pelican.  


You wake up. Every time you do there is that bright fucking light in your eyes. You know you are on the MOI now, and shift again in your seat before letting the harness release you, and standing up. You walk off the ship as well.  


By the time you had fallen asleep, there wasn’t a ton of time left before you actually reached the Mother Of Invention again. You think out in your head what you want to do: Sleep, eat, clean off your armor and visit your locker. You probably won’t have time to do all of these options, so you do the ones that appeal the most to you right now. You walk into the cafeteria, and it’s empty. Just you. There is a really nice view from in there, with a couple of big windows showing all the stars outside. You go behind the counter there, and there’s the kitchen. You search the fridge and the first thing available to you becomes yours. You grab an apple and a paper cup, which you fill with ice water.  


You sit alone at a table and think. You think about your first official day at your job. Today was awful. You tug off your helmet and set it next to you on the bench. You sink your teeth into the apple and accept its flavor. It’s sweeter than they usually are. You end up eating the entire thing except for the stem. You toss that part into the trash, as well as the now empty cup and then walk to your room. Your armor is starting to wreak. The smell of blood is disgusting. You wanted to clean it off later, but now it is demanding your attention. You sigh and get a wet cloth, and scrub it down. It takes some time, unfortunately.  


Finally you finish, but only have about an hour and a halfs time left before you need to go back to working. You let your armor become a mess of pieces on the floor and lazily climb into bed. The sheets feel…. foreign. At this point though, sleep itself is foreign. Close your eyes, and quickly let sleep take you.  


You dream about all sorts of different things. You aren’t sure if at one point you are sleeping or not, but you hear growling. You just continue to try to sleep. It’s not something from your dreams.  


You pull a pillow over your head. It’s cold and nice. You shift a little in your half conscious sleep. Then there’s that growling again.  


You’re in that precious state of half sleep though. Like when you have to get up to go to school or work in the morning, and your alarm wakes you up. You turn it back off and “sleep” some more but you know you need to get up while you are sleeping. 

You feel something wrap around you, and you no longer are touching the bed or pillows. You jolt awake then, wondering what the hell is happening and you look up to see Maine. He’s holding you bridal style in his arms, and walking to your own bed. When he sets you on your own bed, he notices your eyes are open and you’re awake. He shoots you a _look._ You return it with a nervous look. 

“..Sorry.”  


Maine just huffs and doesn’t say anything to you. He climbs into his own bed and readjusts his pillow, before resting his head against where yours just was.  


You move to be under your own blankets with just your head out, and you are laying on your side so you can see the other ODST, his back is to you.  


“Again… Sorry about Iowa. I heard that you guys were...pretty good friends.”  


He doesn’t respond to you, but you hear him let out a breath. It’s not meant to be intimidating, but it is. He pulls the sheets over his head. You let him sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! More is coming out soon! As always, feedback is appreciated, I'd love to hear what you guys think. If you find an error in the story, please let me know.


	3. Training Floor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wake up like every other day to practice strategies and fighting skills. It doesn't end the way you had hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not proof read this like at all because I'm super busy and that is why the chapter is shorter so sorry about any mistakes :P
> 
> On a side note I actually wrote more than this, but my friends didn't like the ending I wrote so I cut it off and the ending will be the start of the next chapter, which might come out a little early.

You lay in bed, and think. You think of the charred body that once had been Iowa. You think about that AI you’ll never meet. Guilt continues to consume you. 

You wake up to the alarm Maine had set. You don’t remember falling asleep. With a grunt Maine leans over and slams the top button with his hand and the little machine goes quiet. His hand then retracts to be back under the covers. Your eyes once again adjust to the light, just like they do every other morning. You yawn quietly and stretch. You lay there a moment, before sitting up. You run a hand through your messy hair and get out of bed.  


You rummage through a dresser with your clothes in it, and pick clothes to wear. Almost everything you own in the drawer is pretty simple in appearance, and they mostly match the colors of your armor. The colors gray and yellow are your favorite colors, and you start to wonder if the Director specifically had picked out those colors for your armor, or if it was just pure luck.  


You get out an outfit, and get dressed. You don’t care if Maine’s in there, you’re both guys and he has the blanket over himself anyway. The ODSTs change together in the locker rooms anyways, so again, it’s no big deal.  


You pick up your dirty laundry and throw it into the hamper in the corner of the room. Then you walk out to the restrooms. You brush your hair, only to have York come up behind you and mess it up. He was already in there but he was on his way out.  


“Morning Wash.”  


“Good Morning York.”  


“See you on the training floor?”  


You nod to him, and he steps out of the room. You brush your hair again. You consider showering but then you remember it’s the same day as the day you dropped. You just had to wake up super early and now your sleep schedule is all screwed up. You sigh, and walk out of the room a few moments later.  


For the past few weeks, you’ve been training with the other ODSTs and practicing simulations to help with piloting your egg.  


You wander the halls of the MOI, and soon reach the viewing area of the training room. The room is fairly empty, only with a counter and a stack of chairs up against one of the walls. The glass is thick, and through it you can see the training room below you. It’s a huge room, with the leaderboard on one side, and a couple of exits.  


When you see the other ODSTs starting to enter the training room, you decide to go down there too. When you get there, the Director steps into the viewing area with the Counselor, who has a clipboard with him. You see him watching you at one point, and it is uncomfortable. You look away from the window and group with everyone else. You listen into their conversations, but don’t join them.  


You then hear the sound of the ship’s on-board AI over the intercom. ‘AIs will not be permitted for our training this morning, so please stay logged off.’ There was a short pause. ‘Agents, line up for 1500 yard warm up run.’  


With that, she went quiet, and two long lines on the floor lit up. Everyone moved to be side by side, and got into their running stances. You didn’t have one, so you just stood awkwardly among them. Carolina was on one of your sides, and Florida was on the other. A beep then went off, and everyone raced towards the line on the opposite side of the room. Carolina was easily the fastest, even without the help of an AI. She took the lead. Connie was in second, but there was still a lot of distance between.  


The sound of everyone’s feet against the metallic floor echoed in the room. You were pacing yourself, unlike a few of them. You were about in the middle of the crowd. Behind you, were Wyoming, Maine and Florida, who had just sprinted full speed in the beginning, but were now dragging along. North was in front of you, and York was about your speed, and he would tease you about who was going to win, trying to get you to stop pacing yourself and waste your energy. You reluctantly just argue with him, in a playful way of course, and say you could beat him even when you’re walking.  


York chuckles and makes an over exaggerated gasp, as if he was shocked by what you told him. You smile and keep running. After a few minutes, you get there, just before York. He’s playfully pouting and sticking his tongue out at you. You can hear quiet breathing from a few people.  


FILSS then speaks over the intercom again. ‘Free for All Hand to Hand combat commencing in thirty seconds.’  


Oh joy. Everyone is spreading out. You move closer to one of the corners of the room. You personally refer to this type of training as a game of tag. Everyone is running away from each other, or chasing someone. It was everyone against each other, and the last one standing wins. You are out if someone manages to get you flat against the floor.  


You quickly think of a strategy. You decide you are going to try to just avoid everyone, until there are only a couple left and you can pick them off easier. Then there is another beep, and the training floor becomes chaos.  


Wyoming runs for south, who kicks him back, and he stumbles a little bit but doesn’t get down. He charges south again and hits her in the stomach. North runs in and tackles Wyoming over, and holds him there a second. He then lets go and looks to South. The twins form a temporary truce. Over the intercom FILSS chimes in ‘Agent Wyoming is out.’  


York and Carolina are getting Maine. York is taking a good majority of his hits, and Carolina outspeeds Maine and just pummels him when he’s distracted by York. At one point Maine gets York down, and focuses on getting Carolina the fuck away from himself. ‘Agent York is out’ the intercom says. Shortly after, you hear ‘Agent Connecticut is out’ from FILSS. You blink and look over, to see Florida having her pinned on the floor. He then gets off of her and looks at you. He runs at you. You raise your fists in defense and wait for him to approach, but the closer he gets the more that seems like a bad idea. You turn and take off.  


You run past Maine and Carolina, dangerously close to Carolina, and you luckily get by. Florida is still chasing you again, in a sprint. He ducks down to miss a swing from Carolina as he goes by them, only to trip over Maine’s foot and fall face first onto the ground with a thud. Shortly after FILSS continues ‘Agent Florida is out.’

You sigh in relief. You then see the twins have split up, sneaking around opposite sides of the room, trying to be unnoticed in the large empty room as they make there way to you. You recklessly make a dangerous decision. If you are going to have a chance, you are going to need to team up with Carolina. You finally join the fight, and go after Maine. If you want to win, that brute can’t be after you. You know you can’t take the twins on your own, so that’s when you make your decision. You run to Maine and make a powerful punch to his chest. Your knuckles actually pop when your fist comes in contact with it.  


The larger Agent doesn’t even seem to flinch at that, and you can hear him laughing a little at you. Carolina looks at you, but she turns her attention back to Maine. You aren’t the threat to her. You both are faster than Maine.  


You both zip around him, dodging his attacks. You do end up getting hit once, and it feels like you are getting hit with the force of a truck. It hurts. You wince and duck when he swings at you again. When he’s focused on you, Carolina kicks out his legs, and he falls to the ground.  


‘Agent Maine is out.’  


You rub your shoulder where Maine hit you. Carolina looks at you and you look to her.  
“Two on two?” She suggests.  


“Yeah.”

The two of you then run at the twins, Carolina goes for North, leaving you behind to get South. You run to her, and she has her fists up, ready. You throw a punch at her, and she catches it in her hand. She grips your wrist and twists it. She keeps twisting, forcing you to lower yourself. You step on her foot with lots of force, and she yelps and lets you go. She huffs and kicks you. You take the first hit, and when she kicks you again you catch her leg, and pull it and she falls onto her back.  


‘Agent South Dakota is out.’  


South quickly snaps back at FILSS “I know, I know don’t remind me!” She says and walks out of the training room, to go to the observation room where the other ODSTs went to watch.  


Carolina betrays you. North has her on the run, and she is running your way. You think she is going to leave North for you to fight when he runs past but instead, she tackles you down to the ground. You land against the metallic floor with a thud.  


“Sorry Wash, was gonna take you down at some point.” She says, getting off of you.

You sigh when you hear ‘Agent Washington is out’.  


“It’s ok. I saw that coming.” you mumble, and get up. You quickly jump out of the way as North catches up to her and they get into a fist fight. You are on your way out of the room now, when you hear ‘Agent North Dakota is out’.  


You stop walking, and just wait for instructions now. You look to the observation room, and see the counselor scribbling down some notes. You then look to Carolina, who is helping North up. It turns out it’s another Free for All again. It goes pretty similarly to the first round, except everyone makes a couple of changes to their original strategies. Maine wins the round. FILSS tells everyone to do another round. Carolina wins again. You end up having to train for hours. You end up practicing for all sorts of different things. You are starting to get a little sore and bruised up though you aren't complaining.  


At one point, there’s an accident on the training floor. Well, it really wasn’t an accident, it was on purpose. You were in the middle of a team battle, when Maine broke South’s wrist.  


At the time, you were on a team with Maine, and CT. South was on a team with Carolina and York. North, Wyoming and Florida were up in the viewing room watching everyone. South had you pinned and was beating the shit out of you. You got a black eye from her. She noticed just how much damage she was doing to you after a few minutes and soon she was lightening up on her attacks. South was about to leave you alone then, figuring you wouldn’t get up from that without being totally disoriented, however by then Maine was pissed at her for hurting you as much as she had, so he proceeded to attack her. South ended up worse than you and got a broken wrist. It reminded you of how Iowa saved you from that Elite. Training ended after that.  


North ran down to the training floor and was quick to come to her side. He looked so worried. He’d repeatedly ask her if she was ok. South played it off as if it was no big deal but her eyes watered slightly from the pain. Some of the medics escorted her out, North following along closely. You then turned to look at Maine.  


Not a moment after South was out of the room, Carolina scolded Maine. Maine just crossed his arms and turned his gaze away from her. He did feel a little bad, but he was just protecting his teammate. There was nothing wrong with that. One by one the ODSTs began leaving the training room. You followed after Maine and thanked him for saving you from South, though you tried to hint to him in your words to be more careful next time.  


You are on your way out of the room now, when you hear Maine asking you “Are you ok?”  


You stop and turn to face the other agent again. You rub the back of your neck and reply.  


“I’m fine.” You say, but you seeing him looking at your black eye. He doesn’t say anything, but you feel like he isn’t content with your answer. You repeat yourself.  
“I’m fine. It’s really not that big of a deal.”  


Maine again, says nothing and crosses his arms now. You walk off to the door now.  


As you are walking through you hear him say “Talk to me later.”  


This, comes to a surprise to you. You at first think you heard him wrong. Maine? Actually wanting to have a conversation? What?

You don’t stop walking away, and you don’t have an interest in clarifying things with him right now. You move a hand over your swollen eye. It stings a bit so you quickly move your hand away. You sigh. Maine leaves the training room and goes off to do who knows what. You go to your room, and sit on your own bed. You are sure to check and make sure it’s your own bed, you don’t want to have another awkward encounter with Maine.  


You rest your head back on the pillow, and think about the Director. You start to wonder why he lets training go so far. Why he lets everyone hurt each other as much as they do. Your thoughts are interrupted when you hear a knock at the door. You look over and see one of the many doctors of the MOI step into your room. They brought you a small bag of ice.  


“This is for your eye.”  


“Thanks.” You say and hold the ice to your eye. The doctor nods and then leaves. When he leaves, you move the ice to your shoulder. There is a large bruise there from when Maine hit you. It’s more painful than any of the other wounds you’ve gotten today.  


You then decide you should go find Maine. You are also wondering why he wanted to talk to you. You keep holding the ice to your shoulder to numb the pain.  


You wander around for a bit, unsure of where Maine is. You look in the cafeteria, in the locker rooms, several different medical wards, the pod bay and then back in your room. You sigh when you don’t find him there and tap your foot a little. You keep looking. You go to the classroom and again it’s empty. You huff and cross your arms. Next you go to the observation room, which is also empty.  


You look through the window and are thankful to see Maine. He was just standing there in the middle of the room. He seemed like he had been waiting for quite some time. Right now, he was fidgeting with a pistol. You watched him for a moment. He would unload it, load it, then aim at nothing. From what you can tell he was practicing his reaction times. He then noticed you up in the window. He just stood there a moment to watch you. You then walk out of the room, and soon meet up with him on the training room floor. Maine seems thankful you finally came.  


“I couldn’t find you.” You tell him, adjusting the bag of ice that was drooped over your shoulder.

Maine just shrugs at your words, but now you see him with a worried expression. You try to follow the direction of his eyes and it seems like he is staring at your shoulder. You then look back to him.

“So what did you want to talk about?” You ask, ignoring the look on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I hated the way I wrote this whole chapter so hopefully it's ok. Anyway, feedback/kudos is always appreciated!


	4. Candy Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Valentines Day on the Mother Of Invention.

He stays quiet a moment as if thinking something out. He then shakes his head. 

“Nevermind.”

Something in you urges you to question him. 

“Oh come on, it took a while to find you! What were you gonna say?”

“None of your business.” he grunts, not wanting to go into it and just wanting to drop the subject. You can tell this by his new facial expression, but again you continue to pester him. 

“Apparently it is if you wanted to talk to me.” You say, crossing your arms, letting the bag of ice slowly begin to fall off your shoulder. 

He doesn’t answer you.

“Well?” You say stubbornly.

Maine groans in annoyance.  
“It’s not important.” and with that he leaves the training room.

You sigh and regret the fact that you wasted time looking for him. You leave the training room shortly after. You go to your locker and look at some of its contents. You pick up your rubber duck and give it a small squeeze, and it squeaks in response. You then set it back on the shelf in your locker. There is some paperwork in there and you just throw it away, along with the melted bag of ice. The paperwork is useless junk you already filled out or don’t need, but you somehow keep getting it anyway. 

You take out your red skateboard then close the locker. You look around a little, and see North. His helmet under the crook of his arm, and the AI on his shoulder.  
With a moment of silence, you finally ask “Is South ok?”

“She’ll be alright. She’s tough.”

“Yeah, I guess she has that going for her.” You pause and lay the skateboard on the ground.  
“I’m gonna get going. See ya North.”

“Bye Wash”

You then skateboard out of the room, and down the long empty hall. For once you have some free time. You effortlessly speed down the hallway and are enjoying yourself. You glance into the rooms you go by. You see Florida sitting on the floor with a basket in his lap with some boxes in it. You go by too quickly to really pick up any more information than that. You go by Wyoming’s room, the door was closed but you can hear him saying some knock knock jokes with gamma. You go by C.T’s and the door is also closed, but you can faintly hear music playing. You go by Carolina’s room, and you can hear York in there talking to someone. Finally, you step off the board and stop it from rolling off to far, before picking it up under your arm and walking into your room. You roll the skateboard under the bed, and get into your pajamas. You don’t know just how long training took, but it was night now, at least according to the clocks. You wanted to try to save your sleeping schedule, so you go to bed. You have weird dreams that night.

You wake up in the morning the next day, at what you assume is morning, anyways. You look across the room and see Maine sleeping with his back to you again. You are happy to wake up in a peaceful manner. This quickly fades though as you think about why you were able to wake up peacefully. You then are scrambling out of bed. You rush to get dressed, and look at the time. You are late to training. The alarm clock never went off. You go to the side of Maine’s bed.

“Maine!”

He makes a mix of a whine and a groan but doesn’t budge. You put a hand on his shoulder and shake him a little.

“Wake up! We’re late!”

Maine seems very displeased to have been woken up by you. He glares at you with narrow amber eyes. He looks exhausted. He pulls the pillow over his head and tries to ignore you and go back to bed.  
He just mumbles “Holiday.” to you. 

You rub your face. On Holidays, nobody has to do anything unless it’s a huge emergency like the MOI getting invaded or something. You haven’t been keeping track of the days you’ve been here, you lost count.

“What holiday?” you ask, climbing back to your own bed.

“Valentines.” Maine replies, his voice muffled by the pillow.

“Happy Valentines Day Maine. Sorry for waking you up.” You say, settling back under the sheets.

“It’s ok.” He said gruffly, before trying to go back to sleep.  


You watched him for a moment, before trying to go back to sleep as well. You wake up about an hour later. You get up and pick up your skateboard. You carry it back into your locker. When you open it up, you blink. You see a couple of heart shaped chocolates, and a box of candied hearts. You raised a brow, and put your skateboard into the lower part of your locker. You take out the box of candy hearts and pour one of them into the palm of your hand. It said ‘XOXO’ on it in a red printed edible ink. You pop it into your mouth. It’s stale. Of course it is. You realize that these came from Florida, because you remember seeing the little boxes in a basket he had last night.

You remind yourself to thank him later anyways for the candy. You then close your locker and go to the cafeteria. York and Carolina are sitting by each other with trays of food in front of them, whispering sweet nothings to each other. CT is sitting at a table across from Maine and you decide to sit next to C.T. She makes room for you and greets you. North is sitting by South and Wyoming. You look to South from across the room. It’s the first time you’ve seen her since the incident. She has a cast around her wrist and part of her thumb. You see her glaring at Maine angrily, and North is whispering things to her in an attempt to keep her calm. Without warning, she pelts Maine with one of the candy hearts.

He blinks and grunts, before shooting a glare to South. He sighs, and goes back to eating his breakfast. You don’t say anything, but just observe your surroundings. You soon begin to eat your breakfast too. Connie then looks to you, noticing your black eye. 

“Jeez, she doesn’t know when to stop does she?” she asks.

You look to the shorter woman. “It’s alright. It’s not that bad….just annoyingly visible.”  


“If you say so.” She says with a shrug.  


South then stands up and growls.  
“Hey! Asshole! No apology or anything?”  


Maine growls, but doesn’t reply to her. She deserved it.  


South took a handful of the hearts and threw them at Maine.  


Maine growled and slammed his fist into the table, before standing up and stalking over to her. You chew your lip.  
North moves protectively in front of South.

“Maine, don’t hurt her. She’s just a little...agitated is all.” he said, carefully choosing his words.  


Maine grunted and crossed his arms. Nobody got the best of him. Nobody. Even you know that. You watch with a look of concern on your face. You hope that this feud between the two agents would end in a peaceful manner. It doesn’t however, because the next thing you know you hear shouting from south and they are in a fist fight. You run a hand through your hair and let a breath out through your nose.  


Luckily, it’s over as soon as it starts with North splitting them up. South plops down into her seat with a childish pout on her face and with a face of annoyance Maine returns to be sitting across the table from you.  


South takes a handful of her heart candies and throws them at Maine again and sticks her tongue out at him.  


“South!” North scolds her, “That’s rude! Apologiz-” but before he can finish, Maine pours his own candy hearts in his hand and throws them at both of the twins.

“Maine!” you yell.

The other agent turns his head to look at you. You, aren’t actually sure what to tell him. You end up saying  
“Just….try to relax ok?”

You just get another grunt in response from him and he then looks away from you. He turns back to his meal.  


York flicks one of the candies that landed on his table to Carolina, just in a playful manner. She smirks and flicks it back to him, but when York flicks it again it hits C.T. on accident. This in turn, starts an all out food fight. Everyone is having fun, except Maine and South who are out for each other's blood. You chuckle and pelt Wyoming with some of the candies, and duck to miss some coming from North.  


It’s fun and games, until the room goes dead silent and everyone just pauses like a deer in headlights. North seems especially worried. You don’t understand why, until you turn around. You tense a little when you see the Director standing there. The candies that were meant to hit you had just hit the Director. He seems very displeased.  


After a moment of silence he speaks up.  
“You are soldiers and I expect you to act like such. Clean this mess up. Nobody is dismissed until everything is back to how it was.”

North nervously swallows and make a “Yes Sir. Sorry Sir.”

The Director then walks out of the room. You do your best to hide a smile. It was pretty funny actually. After it fades, you get up and help clean up the mess of candy hearts and parts of breakfast from all over the room. In silence everyone is cleaning up and soon afterwards people leave the room. You leave the cafeteria and decide to spend your time skateboarding around the halls.

You catch a glimpse of York and Carolina kissing in the doorway to her room. You just roll your eyes and think _About time they got together._ As you go off into the distance you can hear Delta talking and the sound of him appearing next to his agent.  


“Attention: Heart rate has increased by-”

York sighs, blushing slightly and looking to Delta now.  
“Yeah, Yeah I get it. Log off.”

With that Delta vanishes.  
You keep skateboarding when you see North sitting down by theta, watching the small AI trying to skate. The purple ODST smiled  
“just keep trying Theta. You’ll get the hang of it.”

North then notices you and you make eye contact, which is quickly broken. “Maybe if wash doesn’t mind he can show you some tips?” North suggests, also looking at you with an asking face. You just make a nod. You have nothing better to do. With some hesitance the shyer AI finally agrees. You spend lots of time helping Theta, and you begin to think he trusts you more than he had before.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

As the day comes to an end, you lay in your bed, Maine already in his. You somewhat want to talk to him, but it seems a little awkward to interact with him now. After you had practiced with Theta, you learned that nobody else had received the chocolate heart candies. Everyone did get candy hearts from Florida, though you were the only one to get chocolates. It is not set in stone however you have been thinking about possible people who could have given them to you. You think it could have been Connie because she usually somehow kept sneaking sweets onto the MOI. She has no real reason to give you any though and it doesn’t add up really to why she would do it, so you don’t think it was her. You are mildly concerned about the next option. You are thinking for sure now that Maine gave them to you. You saw him messing with the same foil wrapper around the chocolates and he’s been more in a rush to leave the locker room whenever you go in there. You just figured he was busy or late to something but now it is coming to your attention.  
Finally you turn to look to the other agent. His back is to you as always.  


“er...Maine?” You pause and think about how to start the conversation.  
“You were the one who gave me the chocolates, right?” You say.  


Maine is silent, though you see him shifting a little under the blankets. You assume he’s thinking out what to say. A few minutes pass, and there is an awkward silence. You open your mouth to say something again, but then Maine begins to snore.  


You blink. Of course. You chuckle a little for not realizing this sooner. You then look away from him and close your eyes.  
“Night buddy.”

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

 

In the morning, the alarm wakes you up. Maine reaches out to it and tries to press the button. You open your eyes to the blinding light again and turn your gaze to the screaming alarm clock. Maine shuffles his hand around the area the clock is, before finally finding its location. He peeks his face out from under the blankets and turns it off. You rub your eyes and both of you yawn. You sit up and out of bed. You get into your armor, and walk off to the pod bay. Fuck. You don’t want to do this again. You take your helmet off and are eating those chocolate hearts. You scrunch up the foil into a little ball and stuff it into your pocket. You then slide back into your helmet and wait by your pod. After some time, everyone is there. There are a few ODSTs you don’t recognize. You soon find out that these agents are Agent Georgia, and Agent Utah.  


The Director walks into the room shortly after they do. FILISS begins her lecture, which again you tone out. You do it on purpose this time, because you are realizing that it’s things you already know or don’t quite care about. Soon there is the familiar sound of ‘Good luck Agents’ and with that she goes silent. The Director then speaks. He talks about the goals of the mission. It’s something about raiding a covenant armory and picking up supplies for the MOI. When everyone starts getting into their pods, you begin climbing into your own, but you stop.  


“Washington, you, South, and Florida will not be coming along on this mission.” The Director states. 

You weren’t expecting that. You obey him though and you get out of the pod. You wait quietly for further instructions. When everyone is a good enough distance away from the pods the doors open and they get launched down. It’s pretty interesting to watch the machinery. 

“In one hour the rest of you will meet in Classroom C for further instructions.” The director says, and then leaves you alone. 

South groans. She hates having to sit through class. You don’t blame her because it isn’t fun, however she is always the one to complain about it.  
You make a small sigh and walk back to your room. You look at the time and it turns out to be six in the morning. You decide to take off your armor and sleep again. You change the alarm to wake you up in forty minutes. You hope that everybody on the mission is ok and that it will be successful this time. You then close your eyes and take your nap. You dream about being home and playing with your two pet cats from many years ago.  


Your peaceful sleep is disrupted by the alarm some time later, and you get up and turn it off. You organize your hair by running your fingers through it, and get into your armor again. You then meet up in the classroom, and you see Florida and South in there sitting by each other. The Director and Counselor haven’t arrived just yet. You decide to sit next to South. Florida is drawing fancy patterns on her cast and South is just boredly tapping on the table, occasionally watching Florida draw. You break the silence.

“Hey, Florida?”

He doesn’t look up from his drawing. “Yeah Washington?”  


“Thanks for the candy yesterday.”  


“Oh! You’re very welcome!” He said, his tone was cheery, even this early in the morning.  


You smile a little to him, and look to South. She doesn’t seem to want to talk to you really at all, so you though so the silence continues afterwards. The Director and Counselor walk into the room afterwards. You pay close attention to their lectures. 

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

It’s been a few hours. South is super eager for class to end, Florida seems happy to be there, and you are just bored.

That was when FILISS chimed in.  
“Pelican in bound. Medical team requested in docking bay.” She said, and then there was silence.

The Director pushed his glasses up a little. “Class is dismissed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Kudos and Feedback are appreciated and keeps me going! Sorry about any typos, I didn't proof read this.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Feedback is always appreciated, and it keeps me going! I'm newer to writing and suck at proof reading, so if there is an error please don't hesitate to tell me! I know the formatting is weird, Ao3 totally butchered it in transition. Sorry I'll update it later when I have more time


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